New Fairfield girls capture first crown

But even that couldn't compare to the feelings the Rebels experienced Saturday after capturing their first state championship at Wickham Park.

"I know I kept on reminding myself how it felt to come in second and it was awesome," LaRegina said. "So I kept telling myself if we come in first this year...It's absolutely amazing. It's mind blowing."

Far less dramatic or unexpected was the Class S race. It proved to be a carbon copy of last year as Immaculate High senior Moira Kenny of Sherman defended her title and teammate Katie Collins, a junior from Brookfield, again took second.

Kenny had the second-best time of the day, completing the 5,000-meter layout in 18:44.

"If I take a negative and leave it a negative then today is a negative. I took last week and said the SWCs were really just a dry run to the race that really counts," Murphy said. "Everyone is going to look at the state meet. The state doesn't look at the SWCs so I redirected our focus. We altered some of our workouts to get us prepared to today. Some of the kids that didn't have good races last week, Thank God it was last week and not today."

The Rebels had high hopes at the league meet after defeating six-time defending champion Newtown in a dual meet, but the Nighthawks prevailed when it counted: with a title at stake.

"It was disheartening because we were expecting more," LaRegina said. "We beat Newtown in the regular season so we were expecting at least second but we knew this was more important than the SWCs. We all came together as a team so much."

"This was our main goal," Thoms said. "We really wanted this."

Adding an impact freshman like Thoms provided a major boost to the lineup. The team's front-runner all season, she was third in 20:10.

"I'm a little bit in shock," she said.

Her teammates were hardly surprised. She arrived at the high school as a well-known commodity after gaining experience with Flash Track, a town organization for middle school runners.

"She doesn't have any expectations. She just goes out and does her best every single time," LaRegina said.

Said Murphy: "She's been doing it all season. She had big-race experience even before she got to high school. That has prepared her for these types of races."

Glastonbury's Kristin Malloy, the Class LL winner in 18:34, registered the top time among girls. She was 10 seconds faster than Kenny, who wasn't pushed and prevailed by one minute, 34 seconds. How does she deal with such a big lead?

"I just keep telling myself to keep pushing it and that I'm not tired and I can keep going. I have to try to motivate myself as much as possible," she said. "It is kind of hard but I think I like being out there by myself. I was really excited and I'm really happy with my time."

Kenny and Malloy will be the co-favorites at next week's State Open.

"I'm just going to work really hard this week and see what happens," Kenny said.

The Mustangs, with only five runners, managed to finish fourth with 128 points. Sophomore Bridget Teeking (39th), junior Colleen Preusse (54th) and Jackie Fisher (56th) also scored for Immaculate.

Ridgefield sophomore Katie Howley was third in Class LL. Her time of 19:14 tied for the fourth-best in the six girls races.

"I felt very strong during the whole race. I really like this course because there aren't too many uphills or down hills. I made sure I had a lot of sleep (the race began at 10:35 a.m.) and I trained really hard this week and tried not to get sick because there's a big cold going around. And luckily the rain held off."

Ridgefield and Newtown were third and fourth, respectively, in Class LL, while New Milford was eighth. All three qualified for the State Open as a wild card.

The two individuals and the top two teams in each class earns an invitation to the Open, along with girls that ran 21:06 or faster from outside the top 12 and the eight wild card teams whose scorers have the fastest combined times.